This renewal application requests continued support for an established, successful, multidisciplinary training program in Digestive Diseases. The overall objective remains to train qualified postdoctoral individuals (M.D., and/or Ph.D.) for academic careers in enteric sciences. We will continue an integrated approach involving 30 faculty (an increase of 5 faculty since the last renewal) from clinical and basic science departments. Training is structured along two tracts: i) basic/disease oriented research; and ii) patient-oriented research. Within the basic/disease oriented research tract, a prior strength of this program, training opportunities exist in cell biology, cancer biology, neuromuscular sciences, and experimental surgery/transplantion research. The patient-oriented research tract, a new initiative, was developed due to a recent doubling of federally funded patient oriented investigators (from 5 to 11 since the last renewal) in Gastroenteroloyg/Hepatology, and a Masters Degree program in Clinical Sciences developed under the auspices of the Institutions K30 Award. This tract provides training opportunities in epidemiology/outcomes research and in clinical trials/human studies; all individuals in this tract obtain a Masters Degree in Clinical Sciences. We request support for 6 postdoctoral trainees per year, an increase of one over prior years, to accommodate the expanded training opportunities, the consistent number of qualified applicants, and the overall success of the program (65% of former trainees over the last 10 years have either an Academic Appointment or a Staff Scientist position). Moreover, we have also observed a resurgence of interest in academic gastroenterology (11 applicants this calender year to date) driven by recent developments in academic medicine, and the NIH loan forgiveness program. We continue to aggressively recruit representatives of minority groups; over the last 10 years, 41% of the candidates have been from minority groups, including women. The Training Program is highly intergrated with the Institutions K30 Program, an expanded General Clinical Research Center, and the Comprehensive Cancer Center. This well established but dynamic training program continues to expand and exploit new training opportunities, and remains highly successful in achieving its goal of training individuals for academic careers in enteric sciences.